Humanverse

Pricila vs Princeton

American parents have registered 10,256 Princetons since 1880, against 1,130 Pricilas. Princeton is still ahead, with 422 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Pricila against Princeton, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pricila Princeton

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 64 years in which either name was published, Princeton for 55 years and Pricila for 9 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Pricila Princeton
Total US births 1,13010,256
Most in one year 82793
Babies in 2025 6422
Estimated living today 1,10010,000
Median age today 228
Peak year 20022017
Best rank 2,081st girls402nd boys
Rank in 2025 13,208th652nd
First recorded 19801950
Girls / boys 1,130 / 00 / 10,256

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Pricilas alive today are over 22; half the Princetons are over 8. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pricila and Princeton.